The Best Sticker Printers for Small Businesses

May 26, 2022

Stickers are extremely useful to have for many kinds of small business. If you’re an eCommerce startup, clearly printed high-quality shipping label stickers can make sure your products get to where they need to be post-purchase. For offices – whether at home or outside – stickers can help keep your premises organized; they can mark out important files, keep storage in order, and improve efficiency. If your business has a physical product to sell, a good sticker printer can produce eye-catching, attractive labels that really sell your stock to customers. Whatever you’re using your sticker printer for, you need one that’s up to the job. Yet with so many different types on the market, it’s hard to know which one to go for. That’s why we’ve found the top five best sticker printers for small businesses, saving you the guesswork. Here are our recommendations!

Product Comparison Table: Best Sticker Printer for Small Business

TitlePriceRating (Amazon)Best in classBuy
DYMO LabelManager 160 Label Maker$$4.5 starsBest for Organisation Amazon
Brother VC-500W Compact Color Label Printer$$4 starsBest for Product Labels  Amazon
Phomemo M02 Mini Thermal Printer$4.5 starsBest Value Amazon
iDPRT SP410 Thermal Label Printer$$$4 starsBest for Shipping  Amazon
Brother QL-800 High-Speed Professional Label Printer$$$4.5 starsBest Overall Amazon

DYMO LabelManager 160 Label Maker

The DYMO LabelManager 160 prints durable, water-resistant, BPA-free laminate labels that make it easy to organise files, tools, food containers and more. A familiar QWERTY-style keyboard lets you quickly enter text, then edit and customize your stickers with one-touch fast-formatting keys for a perfect, professional label every time. This printer can create labels with six font sizes, eight text styles, and four boxes, plus over 200 symbols and clip-art images. A large LCD display shows you a preview of your design to avoid mistakes, while last-label memory means you can instantly reprint your label if you need more than one of the same design. There’s also automatic shut-off, so the machine will power itself down when idle to save power. However, it doesn’t come with the power sources included (either six AAA batteries or an AC adapter). It also doesn’t support generic label rolls. 

Pros

  • Durable waterproof laminated labels
  • Wide range of customisation options
  • Last-label memory for repeated printing
  • Automatic shutoff when idle

Cons

  • Doesn’t come with power sources
  • Only supports DYMO branded labels
  • Can’t print in colour

Verdict 

The DYMO LabelManager 160 Label Maker is our number one sticker printer for organisation; this handy machine makes it easy to organise anything from file storage to refrigerators. Although it only supports expensive DYMO branded labels, these are very high quality, BPA-free and waterproof, making them versatile and hardwearing. It’s also less of an issue not being able to print in colour when the device is more focussed on function than style. 

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Brother VC-500W Compact Color Label Printer

The Brother VC-500W Compact Color Label Printer prints in full color, at an impressive resolution of over 313dpi; for comparison, this is on par with most high-volume office laser printers. The most impressive thing about the Brother VC-500W, however, is it achieves these high-quality results without ink. All the colors needed for high-quality photo printing are embedded in the compatible adhesive-backed Brother-exclusive ZINK paper. It also comes with a free Color Label Editor app, which lets you take advantage of the printer’s image quality by playing with a range of thousands of elements: frames, fonts, art, backgrounds, and ready-made designs. You can either print from AirPrint, WiFi or traditional USB. 

Pros

  • High resolution color prints
  • Comes with Color Label Editor app
  • Wireless printing available 

Cons 

  • Only compatible with ZINK papers

Verdict 

With the Brother VC-500W Compact Color Label Printer, you can design and print high-quality photo, image and text stickers directly from your laptop or mobile device. This makes it our top option for product labeling; for small businesses, this machine could be invaluable in helping make your products look professional at a lower initial and running cost than inkjet or laser printing. The main downside is the expensive ZINK paper, though, so make sure you factor this in.

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Phomemo M02 Mini Thermal Printer

The Phomemo M02 Mini Thermal Printer is compact and pocket size. This makes it convenient and portable for use wherever you are – and keeps the price very affordable. Despite its small size, it has an impressive range of print options; it can make memos, records, organizational labels, product labels, text stickers, photo stickers in either black and white or color. The resolution is only slightly lower than the Brother VC-500W at 300dpi. The printer is entirely wireless, only supporting connections via Bluetooth. This means it can be easily controlled by the connected app; however, this also means it is incompatible with desktop and laptop computers. 

Pros

  • Comes with connected design app
  • Compact size, great value price
  • High resolution, quality prints

Cons

  • Can’t connect with computers

Verdict

The Phomemo M02 Mini Thermal Printer is our choice for the best value sticker printer, as it provides a lot of the same functions (wireless connectivity, design software, high resolution color printing) as machines twice, or even three times its price. However, there are drawbacks; the exclusively wireless connection means this can only be used in conjunction with Android or iOS smartphones. 

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iDPRT SP410 Thermal Label Printer

The iDPRT SP410 Thermal Shipping Label Printer prints at a speed of up to 5.9 IPS (images per second), enough for 72 4×6 labels per minute. Despite its lightning fast speed, however, there’s no loss of quality, with a consistently clear resolution of 203dpi. Automatic label detection means it automatically calibrates to match the size of label you offer it, which can range from a barcode/FNSKU size (2 inches), up to a shipping size (4.25 inches). This makes it compatible with all major eCommerce and shipping platforms: eBay, Amazon FBA, FedEx, USPS, Royal Mail, Etsy, Shopify, Evri and more. Connection is only available via USB, however, making it incompatible with app-exclusive platforms like Depop; yet it does offer one-click plug-and-play setup on Windows, Mac and Linux. You can also pick between roll-type labels and fanfold labels, as it supports both. 

Pros

  • Compatible with all major platforms 
  • Superfast printing speed
  • Instant setup on Windows, Mac and Linux
  • Automatic label detection

Cons

  • No wireless connection

Verdict

Shipping label printing is an overlooked use for sticker printer machines. If you’re shipping a large volume of packages, having a machine that prints instantly from your platform of choice is a real gamechanger. The iDPRT SP410 Thermal Shipping Label Printer is the best of the bunch, with high-quality, fast, professional and consistent results. However, the lack of wireless support could be difficult if your platform doesn’t offer a desktop site. 

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Brother QL-800 High-Speed Professional Label Printer

The Brother QL-800 High-Speed Professional Label Printer is designed with businesses in mind. It’s incredibly fast, offering print speeds of up to 93 standard address labels per minute – without any deviation from the very high 300 x 600dpi resolution. Although it is primarily monochrome, it’s unique in offering both black and red colorways on the same label when using the correct DK-2251 tape. This tape is the only downside; relying on proprietary labels is a lot more expensive than using generics. However, the included iPrint and Label app does save you some money on software. In turn, Brother DK pre-sized, easy peel labels and continuous length tapes allow you to create a versatile range of sticker sizes, including banners up to 3 feet long!

Pros

  • Superfast printing speed
  • Very high resolution for quality prints
  • Wide range of sizes
  • Two-color black/red printing available 

Cons

  • Only supports Brother branded labels

Verdict

The Brother QL-800 High-Speed Professional Label Printer is extremely versatile, allowing you to print stickers for a variety of purposes: package labels, product labels, envelope address labels, warning stickers, name badges, extra long banners and more. This makes it excellent value for money, even if you do have to use slightly more expensive branded labels. The two-color feature also allows you to be creative without compromising on print speed. All these features make the Brother QL-800  a great all-rounder, and our best overall sticker printer for small businesses. 

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